Reversed into a car but didn't know!

reddevildanni

Hi, i have a motability car which my mum drives for me. Today we received a phone call from motability to say that they've received an allegation that my mum bumped into a parked car when reversing out (in a carpark). I was in the car at the time & i didn't feel a thing. Motability asked my mum if she knew anything about it & she said no, she said she didn't recall hitting anything. They said that's fine & not to worry about it. After the phonecall we went outside to look for any marks on our car & there is a slight scratch & a bit of paint has transferred! Now i'm worried, what if the other person contacts the police as the other person obviously has our reg number? (somebody must have seen it & written it down). What if they have CCTV outside the supermarket? We honestly didn't know & would have stopped otherwise. Please help i'm worried sick!

bryanb

Phone motability and tell them, then stop worrying.

Purdy13

I appreciate I'm a brand new poster but stumbled across your post when looking for some information and thought I'd chip in.

Firstly please please don't either of you worry. You have not acted in bad faith as genuinely, neither of you realised that a contact between the vehicles may have occurred. And if one occurred it was of such a minor nature that it was not felt by either of you.

However, if someone has made contact with Motability, my concern is that there is a possibility someone may be considering intimating a claim against your insurance. I recall Motability vehicles are all insured by Royal Sun Alliance. If it helps put your mind at rest, get in touch with them and explain what may have happened and put them on notice. They will make a note of it on their system should someone try to get in touch with them about this possible very minor incident in future, they will know to get in touch with you again.

It is very unlikely the other person will contact the police, if they wish to make an issue of it they will usually contact their insurance company who would contact yours.

Please believe me when I say this is nothing for you to worry about. I cannot provide you with any specific legal advice but if you have any other concerns, please ask and I will see if I can ease your worries.

(Source of advice: I am a solicitor who deals with road traffic accidents on behalf of insurance companies)

spacey2012

Dont rule out they bumped you and are trying it on.

SevenOfNine

Purdy13 wrote: »

It is very unlikely the other person will contact the police, if they wish to make an issue of it they will usually contact their insurance company who would contact yours.
QUOTE]

It's extremely likely the other motorist WILL contact the Police (& may already have done so) - we were obliged to do exactly that when another driver damaged our car and drove off.

We were given their registration number by a witness (who also gave us their own contact details in case a statement was required).

We went straight to the Police who said they would issue a Notice. Went home and contacted our insurer who also said they would contact the other vehicle's insurer.

Police got back to us first after the driver responded to the Notice & admitted it. The legal side of our insurance policy then retrieved our excess and repair costs from the driver's insurer.

Even giving you the benefit of the doubt regarding being unaware of this at the time, you've subsequently looked at your vehicle, seen damage, realised in all likelihood this DID happen............so what's your excuse for failing to step up to the mark and taking responsibility?

Do I sound miffed, yes. If repairs are necessary to the other vehicle the injured party will have to pay. Do you know their financial circumstances? You have no excuse for not doing the decent thing now.

mattblue

My advise would be to contact your local force to ensure that they are aware incase the driver wishes to take this further.

Please do this as you can be reported for failing to stop after an accident - this is regardless if you knew you did it or not.

It is suppose to be reported within 24 hours but if you are not aware its obviously impossible to do so.

Aslong as insurance details are swapped all will be fine.

Purdy13

SevenOfNine wrote: »

Purdy13 wrote: »

It is very unlikely the other person will contact the police, if they wish to make an issue of it they will usually contact their insurance company who would contact yours.
QUOTE]

It's extremely likely the other motorist WILL contact the Police (& may already have done so) - we were obliged to do exactly that when another driver damaged our car and drove off.

We were given their registration number by a witness (who also gave us their own contact details in case a statement was required).

We went straight to the Police who said they would issue a Notice. Went home and contacted our insurer who also said they would contact the other vehicle's insurer.

Police got back to us first after the driver responded to the Notice & admitted it. The legal side of our insurance policy then retrieved our excess and repair costs from the driver's insurer.

Even giving you the benefit of the doubt regarding being unaware of this at the time, you've subsequently looked at your vehicle, seen damage, realised in all likelihood this DID happen............so what's your excuse for failing to step up to the mark and taking responsibility?

Do I sound miffed, yes. If repairs are necessary to the other vehicle the injured party will have to pay. Do you know their financial circumstances? You have no excuse for not doing the decent thing now.

The other party has already contacted Motability and therefore has already obtained the OP's insurance details. My point to alleviate the OP's genuine worry about the situation was that having obtained her insurance details, it is less likely that the other party will also involve the police now going forward as they obviously have her details, having made contact with Motability.

I also feel the tone of your post is very harsh (I find it so) to someone who is genuinely trying to seek help and advice, accusing her of failing to take responsibility and not doing the decent thing. She clearly states toward the end of her post that if she had realised there had been a contact between the vehicles she would have stopped, and has no where in her post said that she is going to try to deny responsibility having seen the scratch and paint transfer. She merely needs to advise her insurer of this as I said in my first post, so her insurance company can look into it further if needs be and take it from there.

forgotmyname

I found out someone hit my car whilst i was away and i went to the police. Silly man could have stopped and given me £20 for some T-Cut and polish.

Nope he looked and drove off, I reported it and he got a fine and 6 points and the police gave me his insurance details. And it seems he failed to report it still.

So do take it seriously.... But as motability contacted you and not the police you maybe lucky.

Strider590

reddevildanni wrote: »

Hi, i have a motability car which my mum drives for me. Today we received a phone call from motability to say that they've received an allegation that my mum bumped into a parked car when reversing out (in a carpark). I was in the car at the time & i didn't feel a thing. Motability asked my mum if she knew anything about it & she said no, she said she didn't recall hitting anything. They said that's fine & not to worry about it. After the phonecall we went outside to look for any marks on our car & there is a slight scratch & a bit of paint has transferred! Now i'm worried, what if the other person contacts the police as the other person obviously has our reg number? (somebody must have seen it & written it down). What if they have CCTV outside the supermarket? We honestly didn't know & would have stopped otherwise. Please help i'm worried sick!

I'm sorry, but i'm going to be quite harsh about this for personal reasons (which I don't want to go in to).

I would suggest paying more attention in future, as next time it could be a young child.......
A childs skull is a lot softer than another car!

Driving is a serious matter, a car is not a lounge, it's not a place for having a laugh, or a chat, it's a place for driving and paying attention to EVERYTHING around you.

SevenOfNine

Purdy13 wrote: »

SevenOfNine wrote: »

The other party has already contacted Motability and therefore has already obtained the OP's insurance details.

Where did OP say that? Someone clearly contacted Motability but OP doesn't seem to know who that was.

My point to alleviate the OP's genuine worry about the situation was that having obtained her insurance details, it is less likely that the other party will also involve the police now going forward as they obviously have her details, having made contact with Motability.

I disagree. OP has denied all knowledge of this incident & instead of calling Motability back to admit they DO appear to have scraped someone's vehicle, they've come on here instead, fretting about CCTV!

Look out OP - bad advice that Police may not be involved, that's an assumption most likely made by someone who's never had their car scraped in a car park. There's not a cat in hell's chance I'd be letting the matter drop.


I also feel the tone of your post is very harsh (I find it so) to someone who is genuinely trying to seek help and advice, accusing her of failing to take responsibility and not doing the decent thing.

Yes, harsh. Put very bluntly OP should stop faffing about on here fretting about "Police", "CCTV", "someone having reg number", and call Motability back to admit they've found damage on their vehicle - IMO that shouldn't really be advice that needs to be asked for.

She clearly states toward the end of her post that if she had realised there had been a contact between the vehicles she would have stopped, and has no where in her post said that she is going to try to deny responsibility having seen the scratch and paint transfer.

OP doesn't seem too keen to accept responsibility now that scratch/paint transfer HAS been found. They didn't realise at the time but have CERTAINLY realised now. Their thread is a no-brainer, call Motability and say so.

reddevildanni

Ok just a quick update. We informed motability of the scratch/paint transfer but it turns out that the other persons car is not the same color as the paint which was on our car (the mark was so small, measured less than 1cm!) so our insurance will not pay him out at the moment as there is no evidence.

We did receive a letter from the police (driving without due care & attention & failure to stop) asking for driver details. The letter does state that these are allegations ONLY and may not even be investigated. Just wondering what do you think will happen next? My mum attatched a letter to the form which she had to return back to the police explaining that neither of us were aware of any collision.

Is she likely to get charged with this? If so, what will be the punishment?

We're both so worried & now i hate going out in the car, it's all constantly playing on my mind!

Thanks for your help!